I have no idea how, but despite welcoming our fourth child in February I managed to read voluminously this semi-annual period, almost 4,000 pages. I wasn't coding or taking any classes, but that is still probably twice what I normally read. The selection of books was all over the map. I only grouped them together after the fact. Some were for professional development, some for personal interest on the topic, and others because they were considered "Great". Of the "Great" books some truly deserve that epithet but others not at all.
THE CLASSICS
Starting the year, I read the trilogy with my oldest daughter. This story is an amazing creation; rich in vivid details and descriptions. Honestly, I read too fast and I don't pay enough attention so it bogged down the novels a bit. If I read them again I would take the time to savor the story and not skip past the dozens of songs and long historical passages. All that said, it's an epic story about good and evil, friendship, adventure, courage, faith, and loyalty. Tolkin is refreshingly straight-forward about his sense of morality and value.
Foundation - Issac Asmmov
I read this after Three Body Problem hoping to understand why the SciFi canon has been lauded by technologists as a source of great ideas and thinking. Foundation did not impress me at all. It was poorly written, boring, and derivative. Reading it was like reading an Ayn Rand novel except for the lack of a big idea.
The Odyssey - Homer (translated by Emily Wilson)
At some point in the University of Chicago's Core Curriculum undergraduates are supposed to read The Odyssey, I believe. I either skipped it or missed that course somehow. Listening to Emily Wilson on "Conversations with Tyler" inspired me to pick up her translation and complete my college education. I read it accompanied by the Literature and History podcasts on Homer's The Odyssey for context. One of the oldest works of the Western world, The Odyssey surprised me. My guess is that most people associate the Sirens or the Cyclops with Odysseus if they know anything at all about the story. But, those were the smallest passages in the text and of little consequence. How did history filter this story down to two small details and leave out everything else? At any rate it was well worth the read as a classic. It is especially useful to grapple with the notion of Odysseus as a great man as the Greeks thought of this character and how we would assess him today. Great does not necessarily imply good or virtuous and that line of thought about Odysseus is really important. Great read and wonderful introduction by Emily Wilson. Highly recommend.
GREAT WRITING
The Story of a New Name & Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay - Elena Ferrante
I'm completely hooked by this story. These are the second and third of the four books. It's taking everything I have not to read the 4th book until I finished a few other things. The story of Lenu and Lila is deep with lots of sadness. Couple thoughts; we tend to think of Italy as something culturally sophisticated and admirable but tend to forget the rampant ugly poverty and cultural cesspools located there which probably drive lots of Italian to immigrate to America. Part of the story are Lena and Lila's attempts to transcend their poor neighborhood of poor Naples. They say you can never come back home but maybe a corollary is that home never leaves you even when you become part of the intelligentsia and have money. I highly recommend the Neapolitan Novels.
When Breath Becomes Air - Paul Kalanithi
Paul Kalanithi wrote this beautiful short memoir while undergoing cancer treatments and full knowledge about the accelerated timeline of his death. His is a gifted writer and this short book is truly a gem. It's raw and unpolished but contains soaring prose not about death, but about life. Another interesting part is his perspective both as a patient and as a physician and how he can translate both experiences for the other.
The Caine Mutiny - Herman Wouk
A brilliant novel about the unique stress and life at sea during war. Most of us in the military don't appreciate enough the differences between command in the Navy and command for the rest of the services. A ship on the water, especially in the old days, is cut off from everything else and is deeply exposed to the elements and to the danger of the enemy especially enemy submarines. So the Captain of the ship is given an extraordinary amount of lee-way and authority that is at least dictatorial and close to god-like. Wouk's novel has incredibly rich characters and a fascinating story. I can't recommend this enough and am excited to dig into the rest of Wouk's oeuvre.
NON-FICTION: LEARN SOMETHING
Michael Lewis is a master of his craft. Unrelated to Flash Boys, do yourself a favor and listen to Michael Lewis' conversation with Ezra Klein. They have a rare chemistry in the discussion and Michael Lewis shares quite a bit about his writing process. This book is about the rent-seeking behavior of those in the finance industry who are siphoning off small bits of money at a high frequency putting a tax on the financial system. The amounts are too small for any individual to care about but collectively these guys are like Mafia racketeers, only it's legal behavior. High Frequency Trading makes one's blood boil and makes me wonder about the trade off between being somewhat poorer but removing opportunity for graft versus wealthier but accepting corruption/rent-seeking. Pushed too far people will happily punish unfair behavior even if it hurts their own interests.
The Hard Thing About Hard Things - Ben Horowitz
This is a business book that, as far as I can tell, has been read and recommended by all the tech folks on Twitter and in the blogosphere. Of course Ben Horowitz deserves all the money he has for the companies he built and for a16z, his venture capital firm. However, I found it strange to read what passes for wisdom. It was incredibly banal and like reading a book on how to be a Navy SEAL only to find out that the author recommends doing pull-ups. It makes me wonder if there aren't 20 dollar bills all over the place in tech. Also, it was a slap job as the author needed a better copy editor and repeats several of his stories in different chapters. Pass.
Moonwalking with Einstein - Joshua Foer
Foer achieves the holy trifecta; entertaining, useful, and succinct. Most of these types of books are really just long-form articles that get stretched into 250 pages. This was probably a long-form article but forgivable for being longer. Foer walks us through his year-long journey to participate in the American Memory Championships, an event he first reports on then decides to do a self-experiment with memory techniques. It was fascinating to read the techniques for memory that are accessible to all of us and how with apparently 30 minutes a day Foer was able to rapidly improve his working memory. It's not crazy stuff. I used to have 20-25 phone numbers memorized cold. Now I only know my own, my wife's, and our land-line from when I grew up. The idea of memorizing 20-25 9 digit numbers seems impossible but we all used to do it.
On China - Henry Kissinger
My experience in the Asia Pacific is zero and it's an enduring security challenge for the United States so I thought I would expand my education to include something on China and why our relationship with it is so important. Henry Kissinger's account of China is an incredible perspective. This is not a history of China book but more about the opening and development of relations between the current Chinese government and the US. At the beginning of the book Kissinger offers a short primer on Western involvement (interference) in Chinese affairs from the 1800s onward which helps to understand China's sensitivities. I found this to be particularly useful. Then, Kissinger runs through history quickly to lead up to his secret mission to China which led to the establishment of diplomatic relations and Nixon's visit. This was a fascinating history and memoir including details about China vis-a-vis the Cultural Revolution, Vietnam, Taiwan, Japan, Tienanmen Square, economic transformation and internal politics. I can't recommend this enough especially to security practitioners.
Cyber War - Richard Clarke
This was published in 2010 which seems like it was a century ago. Richard Clarke is the national security Cassandra-gadfly of many administrations. His bottom line point is that the US is more reliant on unsecured internet/networks for our commerce and daily lives than our adversaries. Despite the fact that we may have the most sophisticated cyber weapons in the world we are much more vulnerable to attacks. A cyber attack on the US would be easy for China/Russia/Iran/North Korea and have much more devastating consequences, according to Clarke. The North Koreans are much less dependent on cyber networks and would feel little effect. The Chinese are building ways to "drop the bridges" so to speak, to isolate themselves from the outside but maintain an intranet within its borders. Clarke's call is for us to develop many defensive strategies to protect not just our military capabilities but also our financial, agricultural, transportation, and power sectors which are run in the commercial sector. Sectors that are uninterested in government regulation and mostly unwilling to invest resources in protecting the information infrastructure on which they rely (on which we rely). This is probably not the most current book about cyberwar which is changing by the week but it laid a good foundation and I would also highly recommend it especially to policy makers and security professionals.
FOR FELLOW HAS-BEENS OR NEVER-WASES: RUNNING
It's bit of a hagiography as it was written by, Kenny Moore, one of Bowerman's apostles, but to be fair it does offer up some balanced viewpoints about one of the most important track and field coaches in U.S. history. I walked away feeling like Bowerman was mostly an ass who liked to torture the people around him but was extremely sensitive to any perceived slight. His falling out with Bill Dillenger was particularly saddening. That said, he was incredibly accomplished and from a macro level he did a lot for Oregon, the University of Oregon, track and field, and his country. I salute that. A must read for the LetsRun crowd but otherwise skip.
